Originally posted April 1, 2014

Berkeley-A lawsuit will be filed in Alameda County today by Pacifica Directors for Good Governance against the 12 Pacifica Foundation board members who have engaged in a series of illegitimate actions to destabilize the 65-year-old public radio network. The lead plaintiff is current board member Heather Gray, who is one of two representatives for Pacifica’s 180 program affiliate stations and is associated with WRFG (Radio Free Georgia). The 16+ page brief requests injunctive relief to protect Pacifica from adverse impacts resulting from the board majority’s illegal actions.

Pacifica Foundation Radio is currently without legal representation following the resignation of corporate counsel Terry Gross. To date, the board of directors has not authorized any legal action on behalf of the foundation, nor allocated the use of any network funds. Disputed board chair Margy Wilkinson claims to have unilaterally engaged the services of Hunter Pyle, an associate at Siegel and Yee from 1997-2003, but Pyle is unable to represent the foundation without a board vote. Wilkinson did not report to the board exactly who engaged Payle nor how his fees were being paid.

The next meeting of the Board of Directors is on April 3rd.

An open letter to the Board objecting to the breach of the Executive Director’s contract signed by hundreds of staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found here.

The legendary Roy of Hollywood joined programmer Eben Rey and Executive Director Summer Reese on KPFK’s air where they talked at length about the current turmoil. 

A copy of a complaint filed with the CA Attorney General by 8 former members of the national board can be found here.

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

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